NEWARK — It has been nine years since Carla Vicentini walked out of a Ferry Street bar, never to be seen again.

Federal authorities, however, have not given up hope that she may still be found, and are now offering a $20,000 reward for anyone who can help lead them to her.

A native of Brazil, Vincentini arrived in the U.S. through an exchange program in January 2006. She quickly found a job at a White Castle in Ledgewood, and stayed in a nearby motel until moving to Newark's Ironbound neighborhood the following month.

On Feb. 10, 2006, she stopped into Adega Bar and Grill, where she had been working as a waitress, to visit her roommate, according to the FBI. By 2:30 a.m., she had struck up a conversation with a man, who eventually invited her to his car to look at a photograph.

Before she left, she told her roommate she would meet her at home. The words were the last anyone has heard from her in nearly a decade.

Vicentini is described as approximately 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes. She speaks Portuguese and very limited English. If alive, she would be 31 years old.

The man with her at the time she went missing was a white male of unknown nationality, approximately 30 years old, 5-foot-8 and about 200 pounds. He had a fair complexion, with light eyes and short, salt and pepper hair.